Brief report with complete data as downloadable

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Brief Report on Technology and Condition
Camille Pissarro
(1830-1903)
Orchard in Pontoise at Sunset
(Verger à Pontoise, soleil couchant)
1878
dated and signed bottom right:
“Pissarro. 1878”
Oil on canvas
h 46.7 cm x b 55.2 cm
WRM Dep. FC 712
Camille Pissarro – Orchard in Pontoise at Sunset
Brief Report
This picture was previously owned by Dr. George
Viau (1855-1939), a Parisian dentist who was one of
the earliest collectors of Impressionist paintings
[Pissarro/Durand-Ruel Snollaerts 2005, p. 373, cat.
no. 541]. This is also confirmed by a sticker verso (figs
2, 8). For the depiction of the orchard, Pissarro chose a
twill-weave canvas pre-primed in a warm light-grey
(fig. 7)[cf. Pissarro, WRM 3119]. As in another, much
later depiction of an orchard by Pissarro in the Wallraf collection, what we have here is a canvas in the
standard F10 size, but turned through 90 degrees
[cf. Pissarro, WRM Dep. 850]. The ground can be seen
under raking light and in the X-ray photograph to
have conspicuous scratches, which must have been
present before the picture was painted, but whose
cause is unknown. The painting was executed, without any discernible compositional planning in the
form of underdrawing or underpainting, in short,
often shallowly diagonal brush-strokes, the colours
often only blending when placed on the canvas (figs
10, 11).
Mostly Pissarro applied the paints wet-in-wet and
fairly impasto, but in the region of the sky or on the
left-hand edge of the picture in the trees the paint
is more spread out and thus has less body. There are
hardly any places in the picture which have been left
unpainted to reveal the ground. The signature in the
bottom right-hand corner was added immediately,
or at least shortly, after the painting was complete
(fig. 6). The surface relief of the painting was largely
destroyed by an early lining measure, which in this
case can, thanks to an exhibition sticker, be dated to
before 1930. On the lining canvas verso is a stencil
with the name and address of R. Gerard, Paris, who
may have been the restorer responsible (fig. 9).
Katja Lewerentz: Camille Pissarro – Orchard in Pontoise at Sunset, Brief Report on Technology and Condition
Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition www.museenkoeln.de/impressionismus, Köln 2008
2
Picture support canvas
Standard format
F 10 (55.0 x 46.0 cm) horizontal
Weave
twill weave
Canvas characteristics
vertical and horizontal app. 20 threads per cm; the repeat consists
of at least 3 weft or warp yarns, each vertical yarn passing over 2
horizontal yarns and then under a further horizontal yarn; fine, albeit loosely, woven fabric with yarn thickness of 0.2-0.5 mm; Z-twist
(fig. 7)
Stretching
not authentic; re-stretched after lining; intervals of the original tacking app. 3.0 to 5.0 cm
Stretcher/strainer
stretcher with crossed centre bars; presumably not original, but postdating the lining of the canvas; stretcher 0.5 cm larger all round than
indicated by the edge of the painting
Stretcher/strainer depth
2.0 cm
Traces left by
manufacture/processing
Manufacturer’s/dealer’s marks
there are fine markings at the corner-joints to indicate the position
of the grooves for the wedges
none visible on account of the lining
3
Ground
Sizing
present
Colour
warm pale grey (similar to gris clair)
Application
primed before cutting-to-size and stretching, thin, one or two layers
Binding medium
presumably oil
Texture
very even and homogeneous; pigmentation visible under the microscope: mix of different-sized particles of red ochre, black and occasional coarse lead-white (fig. 13); under raking light and in the X-ray,
scratches in the ground can be seen, whose origin is unknown, but
they may have been caused by the ground’s having been applied by a
palette knife during manufacture, or else possibly represent manual
damage that occurred after Pissarro acquired the canvas and could
not be repaired before painting commenced (figs 3, 5)
Composition planning/Underpainting/Underdrawing
Medium/technique
–
Extent/character
neither microscopy, UV fluorescence nor IR reflectography give any
hint of any compositional planning in the form of an underdrawing
or underpainting
Pentimenti
–
4
Paint layer
Paint application/technique
and artist’s own revision
largely wet-in-wet, but also wet-on-dry (e.g. tree at left-hand edge);
at the top edge there is some partial orange-pink underpainting beneath the visible colours of the sky; the paint is in places extremely
coarse-grained (for example the transparent milky green) and was
often only blended on the canvas itself (fig. 11); the brushwork often
takes the form of short, shallowly diagonal strokes; no sequence of
application can be discerned, as the paint-layers are superimposed
alternately, while in addition the lining procedure also heavily flattened the paint
Painting tools
brushes of various breadths; the presence of both bristles and hairs
embedded in the paint suggests the use of both hair and bristle
brushes
Surface structure
highly variable, from impasto (foreground, vegetables, fig. 10) to
widely spread out (sky); on the peripheries the diagonal structure of
the canvas is just discernible; however the lining resulted in the almost total flattening of the surface relief (figs 3, 12)
Palette
visual microscopic inspection reveals: white, pale yellow, red-orange,
pale red lake, dark red lake, dark blue, medium green (milky-transparent);
Vis spectrometry: pale red lake could not be determined, carmine(?),
iron-oxide red(?), cobalt blue, copper-based green
Binding mediums
presumably oil
Surface finish
Authenticity/Condition
varnished, not authentic; remains of two different older yellowed or
greyed coats can be discerned in the crevices
5
Signature/Mark
When?
immediately after the painting was complete (fig. 6)
Autograph signature
certain, as the inscription ”Pissarro. 1878” in blue paint with a brush,
mixed with red lake and white, was applied wet-in-wet to the paint
layer in the bottom right-hand corner (fig. 6)
Serial
–
Frame
Authenticity
not original
State of preservation
Canvas lined before 1930 (exhibition label verso establishes terminus ante quem), presumably by
“R. GERARD / 4, Aue de Messine / PARIS” (stencil on lining canvas verso) (fig. 9), with marked flattening of the
surface structure and some heat damage (figs. 3, 12); material: grey lining adhesive, lining canvas in tabby
weave, 20 x 25 threads /cm, lining canvas coated verso (easily visible under UV); marked horizontal damage
to the paint-layer in the foreground, where there are extensive wax(?) fillings and retouching e.g. in the
line of vegetables (fig. 4); in places serious abrasion of the paint-layer, presumably due to inexpert surface
cleaning or varnish removal (fig. 13).
Additional remarks
Pissarro was one of the Impressionist painters who at an early date preferred white frames [Cahn 1989,
p. 65]. Although there is no evidence of this for this painting, it is nonetheless conceivable. For this reason,
at the exhibition “Painting Light – The hidden techniques of the Impressionists” it was displayed in a reconstructed white frame for didactic reasons [Schaefer/von Saint-George/ Lewerentz 2008, p. 182, ill. 191, Mendgen 2008, p. 329-334, ill. 3-5].
6
Literature
•
Budde/Schaefer 2001: Rainer Budde, Barbara Schaefer, Miracle de la couleur (exhib. cat. Cologne Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 8 September - 9. December 2001), Cologne 2001, no cat.
no., p. 436, with ill.
•
Cahn 1989: Isabelle Cahn (ed.), Cadres de peintres, exhib. cat. Musée d‘Orsay, Paris 1989, p. 65
•
Duret 1906: Théodore Duret, Histoire des peintres impressionistes. Pissarro, Claude Monet, Sisley, Renoir,
Berthe Morisot, Cézanne, Guillaumin, Paris 1906, ill. p. 73, 4th ed., 1939, ill. p. 41
•
Mendgen 2008: Eva Mendgen, “Impressionisten: Konzepte der Bildpräsentation und Restaurierungsansätze”, in: Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, vol. 2/2008, 329-334
•
Pissarro/Durand-Ruel Snollaerts 2005: Joachim Pissarro, Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Critical
Catalogue of Paintings, vol. II, Paris/Milan 2005, no. 541, p. 373, with ill.
•
Pissarro/Venturi 1939: Ludovic Rodo Pissarro, Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art, son œuvre, Paris
1939, cat. no. 440, pl. 88
•
Schaefer/von Saint-George/Lewerentz 2008: Iris Schaefer, Caroline von Saint-George, Katja Lewerentz,
Painting Light – The hidden techniques of the Impressionists, exhib. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum &
Fondation Corboud Cologne, 29 February-22 June 2008, Cologne 2008, p. 182 with ill.
Source of illustrations
All illustrations and figures: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud
7
Examination methods used
3
Incident light
3
VIS spectrometry
3
Raking light
–
Wood identification
–
Reflected light
–
FTIR (Fourier transform spectroscopy)
3
Transmitted light
–
EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis)
3
Ultraviolet fluorescence
–
Microchemical analysis
3
Infrared reflectography
3
False-colour infrared reflectography
3
X-ray
3
Stereomicroscopy
Author of examination:
Katja Lewerentz
Date: 1/2005
Author of brief report:
Katja Lewerentz
Date: 12/2008
8
Fig. 1
Recto
Fig. 2
Verso, lined (cf. fig.9)
9
Fig. 3
Raking light
Fig. 4
UV fluorescence
10
Fig. 5
X-ray
Fig. 6
Signature and detail
of the letters “Pi” in
incident light (top) and
under UV stimulation
(bottom); the blue paint
partly blends with the
underlying paint-layer
wet-in-wet, microscopic
photograph (M = 1 mm)
11
Fig. 7
Visible area of the
original twill-weave
canvas microscopic
Fig. 8
Label verso of the
Dr. George Viau
collection
12
Fig. 9
Stencil verso on
the lining canvas,
presumably of the
restorer who carried out
the lining
Fig. 10
Detail, wet-in-wet
impasto paint
applications
13
Fig. 11
Paints of various colours
applied wet-in-wet
blending in the brushstroke, microscopic
Fig. 12
Heavy flattening of the
surface structure, detail
under raking light
14
Fig. 13
Abrasions of the paintlayer and ground right
down to the canvas,
due to inexpert varnish
removal or surface
cleaning, microscopic
15

Brief report with complete data as downloadable

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